"In the late 20th century I attended a lecture by artist/critic Peter Plagens who proposed that in the future artists would be either image makers or object makers. During the late 1990’s I discovered digital media and I spent the next decade or so using the computer as a virtual paintbrush. My digital works were rooted in abstract expressionism and assemblage of found virtual objects. During this time I felt that I was creating images- ephemeral icons whose primary identity was electronic impulses. The process itself seemed removed from the end product. When I created prints on paper or canvas the resulting pieces were reproductions of the digital original: shadowy doppelgangers that existed outside the computer but lacked validity as tangible objects with their own identity.
Graphics software program have evolved and became more intuitive and my use of them has evolved to a state closer to the state of flow I used to experience when painting with oils. I now become completely engrossed in pure visual thinking as I choose and adjust colors, move and edit shapes, apply tints and glazes. I’ve begun experimenting with prints on different substrates: metal, cloth, wood. The tactile and visual qualities of the substrate merge with the visual image to give each print a unique identity that transcends both natural and digital media. I now feel that I am creating objects.
My current work is a synthesis of photography and digital painting, an artistic process that explores issues of formalism using the aesthetics of the natural landscape. The colors are intensified and the forms are abstracted to express emotive qualities one feels while experiencing nature. The series I am submitting was inspired by an exhibition of prints by Lichtenstein that was on display at the San Diego Museum of Art last spring. It was a series of 30 images of haystacks similar to Monet's famous haystacks series but produced using Lichtenstein’s dot method. I was inspired by the Lichtenstein exhibit to make several different color versions of one of my photographs of the Guadalupe River in Texas. In the series each version is slightly different. In addition to changes in color I make subtle adjustments to lines and shapes so that each version is a unique image. These abstract landscapes are printed on either aluminum or canvas. I adjust each image individually before sending it to be printed so each print is unique; no two prints are exactly alike. "